TDI transfer type solid-state imaging devices are devices in which, during vertical transfer of electric charges in photoelectric conversion units, the electric charges are transferred at the same speed in the same direction as with an object to be imaged, so that exposure is integrated by the number of vertical stages of pixels. Letting M be the number of integration stages for performing integrated exposure, for example, electric charges multiplied by M are accumulated, whereby a sensitivity which is M times higher than that of a linear image sensor can be achieved.
Meanwhile, various solid-state imaging devices have been proposed in order to be able to attain an appropriate sensitivity whether the object is relatively bright or dark (i.e., in order to be able to widen the dynamic range). Patent Literature 1 discloses a solid-state imaging device constructed such that barrier levels of overflow gates extending along photoelectric conversion units are lowered in the earlier stage part of the vertical transfer, so as to suppress the accumulated capacity of electric charges in the earlier stage part of the photoelectric conversion units. Patent Literature 2 discloses a solid-state imaging device constructed such that electric charges generated in the earlier stage part of the photoelectric conversion units are transferred into a direction opposite to the transfer direction.